This disclosure relates to a xerographic printing system and method of operation, specifically, this disclosure relates to a system and method of fixing a toner image to a substrate utilizing a moveable fusing device.
In electrostatic printing, a dry marking material such as a toner is fused to a substrate, such as a media sheet or paper sheet. The fusing process occurs after the toner is transferred to the substrate by an electrostatic printing device and before the marked substrate is subjected to any processes which may disturb the placement of the toner on the substrate. Fusing occurs when the substrate is subjected to pressure and heat to permanently affix the toner material to the substrate. Conventionally, the fuser device includes a fuser roll and a pressure roll that form a nip for the marked substrate to pass through. The fusing device may be configured to provide fusing of a variety of different size media sheets.
Xerographic fusing devices suffer from edge wear due to the conformable material used on the fuser roll and/or pressure rolls. Edge wear is a well known condition and is a result of the edges of multiple media sheets passing through a fuser roll assembly, wherein the edge of the media sheets cut or wear into the fuser roll conformable material. In other words, the sheet edges produce a stress concentration as they pass through the fuser nip under pressure, causing the fuser roll thin surface coating and elastomeric layer under the surface to degrade. The degradation of the fuser roll is often manifested as a narrow area of low gloss from a leading edge to a trailing edge across the toner fused to the substrate. To correct for fuser edge wear, the fusing device or roller is replaced.
To address fuser edge wear and extend the useful life of a fusing roll, U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,107 discloses a system and method comprising a continuously moving fuser assembly. By continuously moving the fuser assembly, differential gloss artifacts due to media sheet edges wearing into the fuser roll are spread out over a greater area which extends fuser roll life. Notably, the system and method disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,107 does not depend on knowing the size of the media sheets prior to fusing.
This disclosure provides a printing system and method which incorporates a media sheet registration and fuser roll RDS (Registration Distribution System) to extend the life of a fuser roll by moving a fuser roll to spread out the edge wear area and controlling the registration of media sheets to smooth out the boundaries of the RDS produced edge wear area.